Rusty II

 The last blog I wrote was September 15, 2020 and I labeled it “Rusty” for laying off so long on writing.  Even though I admitted I was rusty,  I also promised myself that since I had been writing since 2005 I was not going to lay off of writing, since I really had no good excuses for being absent.  So, since I mentioned the presidential election in the “Rusty” blog I am not going to give it much time.  The election of the president happened just like it does every 4 years, but turned out to be not like any presidential elections of the past.  Fact is it turned out to be the most hostile presidential election in the history of our country, including the controversial 1876 presidential election(even though voter fraud was the issue at that time also!).   So, I will just say a few things about it and then go on to my real subject for the day.  Whether a person was for Biden or Trump most would agree that the drama of this election was unique and different than any in the history of the USA.  While the counting of the votes was on election day of November 3, 2020, the actual conclusion of the election was January 6, 2021.  The delay was caused from a claim by Trump that there was voter fraud and the victory was stolen from him.  So, there was no evidence of fraud and the charges could not be proven in 50-60 lawsuits through out the country and in the end presidential elect Biden was officially declared the winner and will be sworn in as the President of the United States January 20, 2021.  

So, now that I have touched with that world drama I would like to say that my goal is to stay on positive ground in my future blogs and declare that i will share positive subjects that I hope will be of interest to everyone who reads it.  To do this I had to go to my own library and search through some of my favorite authors talking about things that I know will be interesting, and offer points about life that are both positive and worth spending time on.  So, one of my favorite authors who has published and sold over 20 million self help books is John C. Maxwell, and I will be quoting him in my future posts.  For this I will be using the John Maxwell 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, and a new book I just added to my collection, Badass Habits, by Jen Sincero. Both of these authors present great points of interest towards self improvement, even though they approach it differently and I have found they both make tremendous points towards self improvement and goal achievement.  In Maxwell’s book, the Laws of Growth we will look at the 15 Laws and in Ms. Sinero’s book we will put your badassery on autopilot. So, I make this promise that I will stay on subject and at the end of the day we will have a great feeling for the valuable laws of growth and how to set healthy boundaries to keep on track. 

Stay turned,

greerman

Rusty

 Since it has been some time since I posted on fasttwitchmind I feel a little rusty!  So, I will just start in on a new and exciting subject, about the many weird things that are going on as a result of the virus(the 19 one).  While I have read many different explanations about what this is all about and what it does to the human body, etc.  First, I read one article about a woman who had the virus and she had 137 symptoms, starting with a headache to a toe ache and something on every part of her body.  Now, do you suppose that is one of Trump's prime fake news sources, since it was on my phone.  Well I will leave that to the great debate, assuming Biden can remember what day it is on, and Trump can figure out who he would insult on this given night.  While this was not supposed to be about the election or the fact that it is very sick of our nation, with a population of 320 million people and we only have these two old men to run for president, one is already senile and the other one is a complete liar and narcissistic idiot!  Oh well, as I have said this is not about politics and I hate to vear off into that subject.  But,  please understand I am neither Democrat or Republican and I voted Libertarian in the last election, and my man was Gary Johnson.  The first thing you will say is that I threw my vote away and of course I disagree.  My one vote counted as one vote and even though my candidate did not win my vote still counted.  So, who will I vote for this year?  Good question, but I do know I will vote even if it is a write in for me.  Well I have all the strong attributes of the likely two candidates and I can beat them in one thing that they can do nothing about, BONG//$%, I Am older than both of them by 4 years and 7 years.  So, how about a write in for the old Greerman.

So, I will post this and see how it comes out!  Welcome back!!!!!

greerman

Ego Override

Ego Override!!

A lot has happened since the last time I shared my thoughts so I will get on with it and not waste any time or words!   On August 6, after completing my lifetime effort of completing my 392nd triathlon in 35 years I took a big bicycle crash on a training ride the day after!.  This crash just came out of the blue and was not caused by anything on the road or my bicycle handling error! So what caused this to happen to a seasoned experienced cyclist?  For the record, over the last 35 years of riding the bike I have crashed exactly 5 times and only once in an actual race.  So all of these crashes were on training rides, one was caused after being attacked by a large dog at 30 mph, two, I going down the back hill at 40 mph and hit  the steel grating cover, three, during a race because of a freeze up on the chain system, while the other two just happened because of the fact sometimes you just don’t have control of the road or obstacles in the road.  Regardless, I could pin point every crash and cause except this serious crash on August 6, 2017.  As I took care of the road rash and other bumps and bruises I just could not put my finger on what caused this to happen.  My training partner for 25 years, John Harris was comfortably behind me and said he noticed my handle bars taking a quick pull to the left and then I went down.  While I did not go to the ER or Doctor the day of the crash I did go the next day and left my docs office with bandages for my road rash and a bad headache.  So, at that time my doctor felt that I had a mild concussion, which I agreed with.  So a followup in 3 days verified this diagnosis and we agreed I should get an MRI to see if there was something there the human eye was not getting. Turns out the MRI had a lot on its’ gruesome(this is the first MRI for my head, so I didn’t realize just how dreadful this gadget could be)  But, after seeing the results we found out what the damage was and what caused the actual crash.  Turns out I had s stroke on the downhill and my left hand pulled the left brake way too hard and the front brake flipped me over the handle bars.  So, then the question is why did I(Mr. Healthy, athlete have a stroke and why at this time).  Well it turns out(unknown to me) that I suffered from a condition called A Fib, atrial fibrillation,which I had never heard of before now!  So, what to do about?  1.  Go on blood thinner, have a heart monitor installed in my chest, and the hardest part--limit my activity.  When I ask the doctor if I had just retired from triathlon he said no, he felt I could be treated and would be able to return to swim, bike and run in 2-3 moths.  I am on limited exercise now that almost amounts to nothing compared to the past, but I am following the docs orders.  The next question I ask concerns my age and did that really cause this and the answer was no, I just happened to be a very active healthy 78 year old.  So, I do go through a little depression feeling during the day but I get over it as fast as possible. The back story is that the actual crash could have been much more serious that what happened and I may be lucky I actually was able to walk away from it.  So, some days, weeks, and hours and following the docs orders will get me back to almost where I was.  Since my big goal is to reach 400 triathlons by the time I am 80 on December 16, 2018, I must re-hab back to the point I can finish(I do not have to win them) 8 official triathlons by the above date. The good news is I have many strong triathletes that have set a tremendous example of facing accidents or illness, my friend in Dallas Darrel Neal, had a terrible accident after the World Championships in Australia and returned the next year just due to hard work and determination.  My friend Joanna Zeiger had a bad bicycle accident at the World Championship and after numerous surgeries is still setting the perfect example of sticking with it and overcoming adversity.   Bottom line, I will re-hab and re-write some of my life goals and be thankful I can even write this blog!!!  In my life goals I will address a psychological problem that came to light as a result of this condition.  I think over the years that my ego has pushed me to an uncomfortable situation in life where I need to listen. to my body more and not let the ego gain control  Example, in my quest for 400 triathlons I had done 11 triathlons in 3 months while driving 3300 miles.  So, I did go into this crash with a lot of fatigue and that escalated some of my damage to the brain and body.  Regardless, I know that now and I acknowledge it and will script that out of my life!!

Movie Reviews:  Since the movies being made now are so bad I am going to limit my reviews to just the star designation, for example:  1 * bad waste of money, ** a little better ***I would recommend it if you read the synopsis of it if available, **** very good and I recommend it(not many in this category for some reason), ***** a must see with no negatives.

War For the Planet of the Apes--**, not near like the originals

Spider Man **

The House *

47 Meters Down  *

Wonder Woman ***

***The Hero-only gets the extra star because of Sam Elliott

Dunkirk *

Hitman Body Guard *, waste of Ryan Reynolds, and Samuel L. Jackson(who only knows how to say the MF, MG words over and over!)

Books now in reading progress:

Lies and Legends, Civil War, Bill O’Reilly

It is Our Fight--Elizabeth Warren

greerman

EA, SH.............:)

Gotcha

It has been way too long since I have written on this blog site.  I have had a lot on my mind and I will have some topics in mind and then life gets in the way of me writing.  But, one of the things that I have noticed about things in general is if they can happen they will.  A good example is things that snag, if they can snag they will.  A good example is my electric massager machine that sits behind me on my desk chair.  It really works and is a relief to have; however since it is electric it must have an extension cord so that means it snags on things, i.e. my shoes, my legs, my desk chair legs, my desk legs, etc.  So, I proclaim that if something can snag it will.  In the same token I have found that if people can park their vehicle very close to you in a parking lot, they will whether or not they really have to or not.  The other day I pulled into the post office  on Sunday and I found that all parking spaces were empty, fact is I counted 94 spaces.  So, I pull up to one of the ninety-four spaces, parked my vehicle and went inside to check on my mail.  When I came out some person had parked their vehicle so close to me that he could barely get out his vehicle.  I watched him squirm and suck his gut in just to get out of his vehicle.  Seemed strange that with all the other empty spaces why did he have this feeling that he must park so close to the only vehicle in the parking lot.  Since my only concern on this is whether or not he dings my new Explorer, I really wonder what is going on in his mind. So, I did a little analyzation of this character and assumed he was a momma’s boy and wanted to snug up against my Explorer to find warmth and peace of mind, or he could have been blind in one eye and that made him park closer than he needed to be simply because he had no depth perception in that left parking eye.  The other possible reason for this action on his part could be he had a real short wife in the passenger seat that I could not see, and she was bitching and moaning about how empty the parking lot was and she did not feel safe being alone in their vehicle without being close to someone or something.  This made a lot of sense since she did look rather bitchy and nagging type of person.  Long story short and in an effort to bring this story to a close, I noticed when I backed out very slowly he came out of the post office and gave me a big middle finger, finger!  So, I am right he is mentally ill and misses he mother dearly and is totally disgusted with his nagging wife so he is taking it out on my Explorer and me.  End of a stupid story that is very close to the truth, but gave me a very interesting story about people and why people are people, I think!

Movie Review:  There is still short supply of good movies or even potentially good movies, but out of desperation I did go see one yesterday.

“The Mummy”, **,  Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe(two very fine actors) play in this mummy movie about the resurrection of mummies in Egypt(where else would they come from?).  Entertaining when you have nothing else to do and want to get in out of the heat.  Rated PG, no sex, no profanity, no nudity, just pure mummy stuff.

Book Review:

“Outwitting The Devil”, Napoleon Hill,*****,  The Secret to Freedom and Success!  Another great book by Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich!”

EA, SH............:)!

greerman

Sleeping Dogs

This morning as I was trying to determine what I was going to write about, my hearing(what is left of it) and mind picked up the sound of my dogs tucked away in deep slumber on the couch.  I knew this was deep slumber simply because their snoring was so loud I almost left the room just to get away from the barrage of roaring snores filling the room.  Then I started to wonder just why dogs seem to require so much sleep.  After all their only real worries center around a few things of life.  First they worry most about the next bowl of food they get and water.  I don’t really think they worry too much about water since it is usually sitting right beside the food bowl so it is of no concern to their worry wart brain.  But, they for sure worry about the food part since you can tell by their enthusiasm by jumping all over you, plus they eat it like there is no tomorrow and then slobber some water over it.  Their next worry is where they will take their next nap, after sleeping all night.  If they have the luxury of a back yard and it is warmer outside my dogs take to the part of the yard that has plenty of sunshine.  I guess they do this for the heat feeling on their body, since they are very black and do not need to worry about their tan lines.  They seem to sleep very well and will do this on alternate trips between the back yard, through the doggy door to their room to eat some food and drink the water.  As the day moves on the night time comes around my dogs are looking for that favorite treat, vanilla ice cream.  Anyone who thinks dogs don’t understand the English language just say “ice cream” around my dogs and they go into a form of circle dances for Bob, howling for Squeaky and Marley jumps!  Again, in our household these wonderful pets do not have a care in  the world, unless you alter some of their daily habits, i.e. run out of ice cream, run out of food, shut the doggy door and they can’t get out to poop and pee, not taking them on a walk some time during the day.   Now as I write this I guess I have answered my question, it is simple I guess, they are just tired from the daily requirements of being a good companion and serving us well as household pets that poop, pee, lick, bark, nibble bit, smile, get angry, growl, and come to us when we ask!  They are there for us and we should always respect that and be sure they have plenty of sleep time.  Good night Bob, Marley, and Squeaky!

Movie Reviews: *  Since the movie selection, in the city theaters, has not been real good this past month, I have only two reviews, so have added some of my favorite books as a replacement.  I might add that I have watched some movies on NetFlix and some of them are worth looking at with lots of choices.  These are what I call Class B movies but some are worth watching.

These are books I have read in the past year.  My reading habits are very consistent with 20-30 minutes every night before going to sleep.  Does not sound like much but I have read nearly 400 books that way, so it works for me.

Movie Reviews:

“The Shack”, ****, This is a very good book about faith in God, brought on by a family tragedy.  The star of the story is the father, played by Mack Phillips, who suffers great doubts and question about life.  He is given the answer through three spiritual visitors.  A well done move with a happy ending.  Rated PG-13, Thematic material and some violence.  

“”Logan”, ****,  A sequel, and another sci-fi.  Logan is caring for an ailing professor on the Mexican border.  Dark forces set in by a young mutant.  Lots of action.  Rated R, strong brutal violence, language through out and brief nudity.

Book Reviews:

“The Champion Mindset”-- Joanna Zeiger, World Champion, Olympian, educated and articulate multi-sport endurance athlete, presents her views on setting the mind to succeed in sports and life.  Rated *****

“A Life Well Played”, complete life bio of Arnold Palmer, great professional golfer who set the pattern for how professional golf is played, and is credited for the overall success of the game.  Rated:  *****

“Laws of Success”, Less Brown, a great motivational book. Rated ****

“15 Invaluable Laws of Growth”, John Maxwell, a great book on the subject of growth in our lives by an author who has sold of 22 million motivational books.  Rated:  *****

“The One Thing-Simply Truth Behind Extra-Ordinary Results”, Gary Keller, excellent points on changing your life for positive results. Rated ****

The Bill O’Reilly/ Martin Dugard,  killing books, “Killing Jesus”, “Killing Lincoln”, “Killing the Rising Sun”, “Killing Patton”, “Killing Kennedy”.  Great historical books concerning these very historical subjects.  Rated:  *****

“Stealing Time”, KJ Waters, while I normally do not read fiction I did read this book simply because I know the author.  It was a very exciting book to read and even though fiction you felt like you were involved in a true story and about time travel, etc. Rated: *****

“Boys in The Boat”, a great true story about the 1936 USA rowing team In Hitler”s Germany.  They won the gold and the hearts of the Olympics.  Great book, rated: *****

“Go Pro”, a very good book about network marketing.  Eric Worrie is the author and I have seen his presentations in person.  Rated:  ****

EA, SH.............:)!

greerman

Shut Up, Movie Reviews

What is foremost on my mind is the CONSTANT NEWS about our new President of the United States of America.  I have promised myself I will not mention his name and will be content with writing something as positive as possible, about our lives and times with this new type  of leadership.  For the life of me I have never seen in my 78 years a person who has to have the headlines no matter what he is doing.  I am sure he must demand an applause for every bowel movement or orgasm he experiences and must have at least 25 giant mirrors in his 85 bedroom home with golden fixtures, etc., etc., to stare at all his wonders.  Now at this point I have still not mentioned his name and that will remain my main goal in writing this, since he certainly gets his amount of coverage in all the magazines, newspapers, television, radio, etc.  So, what is my purpose of even writing this and how will I possibly make any sense of it if I don’t mention his name?  Well for starters what I would like to do is offer him some advice, after all I am older than he is and have done way more triathlons than he would ever imagine to to accomplish, and I am shorter than he is but my hair is still its’ original color and it is all mine, so all these points give me the right to voice my opinion.  Before I make another point I would like to add that I did not vote for either of the major candidates, but I did vote for the third party friend of mine, Gary Johnson.  No, I don’t agree my vote was wasted, since it was cast and counted.  Now, to my main point of the day is that I would like to ask the winning candidate of the presidential election, to SHUT HIS MOUTH just long enough to start accomplishing his many campaign promises and take his two feet out of his mouth and get on with being president.  Most of the negative things that come out in the media are as a result of what has been uttered from the presidential big mouth ego!  So, please get on with it and quit patting yourself on the back so much!!

Movie Reviews:

“A Dog’s Purpose”, *****, This is a very clever story about a dog who is re-incarnated and comes back to life with a series of new masters.  During the re-incarnations over a period of 50 years, this do realizes its’ real purpose as a pet to its’ owners.  Great positive movie for extreme relaxation.  Rated PG for thematic elements and peril!

“The Founder”, ****,  A true story involving the creation and ultimate success of the infamous McDonald hamburger fast food chain.  Michael Keaton plays the 1954 traveling salesman, Ray Kroc, who discovers the two McDonald brothers providing low cost, fast food hamburgers in Southern California.  While speedy hamburgers were not Kroc’s thing, the idea of making this fast food delight a world wide franchise was for sure.  Since there is a McDonald’s on most busy corners, it was fun to watch how it all happened.  Rated PG-13, strong language.  

“Gold”, ***, Gold is a movie based on SOMEWHAT of a true story.  When giving it the old google fact check exercise I found that there was probably more hollywood made up facts than real facts, say 90% fiction and 10% true.  A real person by the name of Kenny Wells(a miner) played by Matthew McConaughey supposingly with his partner, a geologist, finds a billion dollar gold find in the uncharted jungles of Indonesia.  When the final truth comes out, this all turned out to be a bogus find and while some money was made on the speculation through Wall Street, there really was very little money made on real gold.  McConaughey is excellent in the part but absolutely carries the movie with strong acting!  Bryce Dallas Co-stars as the girl friend and wife and they make a great couple.  Interesting to watch but beware of the made up vs the truth!  Rated R, language and sexuality, nudity.

“Fifty Shades Darker”, ****, Well those who liked Fifty Shades of Grey, will like this even more.  It has a new director and that really changed the quality of the soft porn movie, but with a good romance story line.  This time there is a little different approach to their sex scenes(most of the bondage was taken out) and they are much more realistic.  In the last version we found Anastasia Steele breaking off with billionaire Christian Grey and now we find them moving back together and that is what the movie is all about.  It is well done and stimulating, to say the least!  Rated R, strong erotic sexual content, nudity and language.

“Hidden Figures”, *****,  Another true story that many will not be aware of.  It has a best picture nominee for an Oscar.  This is the hidden story concerning the use of exceptional smart “colored” women during the development of the USA space program.  Tarajl P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae played the three outstanding black Americans who, with their mathematical skills, pushed the early space craft into orbit.  This was when John Glenn came on the scene and the space program literally took off!  Great story, very entertaining and gives the viewer some great historical times in the USA space development time period.  Rated PG, thematic elements and language, (lots of smoking, since that is what they did back then!)

“John Wick:  Chapter 2”, ***, If you like John Wick Chapter 1, you will like 2 also.  Keanu Reeves returns as the retired super-assassin whose desire to stay retired just will not be left alone by his past employers.  Seems as though no one kills like he does so they want him back.  Since he refuses, they(the real bad guys), decide to assassinate him.  Watch out here bro’s since John Wick does not go down without killing at least thousands of bad guys with a pistol(it holds a lot of bullets)!  But when he runs out of bullets he steals the gun off the bad guy, shoots him twice in the head and three times in the stomach, then stabs him with a knife, but he also has some bullets left in the pistol.  Also, he does have a new dog!  Rated R,  strong violence, language and nudity.

EA, SH,.......:)

greerman

Well it is that time of year where many people decide to do the New Year resolutions, and then watch the year go by without any of them being accomplished.  While I have never been one to do the resolution thing per se, I have always used December to reflect on the business year I have had, and also throw in the personal stuff if I think  needs to be worked on(and it usually does)!  Also included is my sport athletic stuff that I have always had in my life, i.e. football, track, handball, marathon running, and now as I venture into the twilight of my life I am doing some different type of planning or goal setting.  From a triathlon standpoint my goal is to finish 10 sprint triathlons for a grand total of 391 lifetime finishes.  My ultimate goal is to finish 400 before my 80th birthday on December 16, 2018.  So, staying in good health and injury free is the order of the day!! From a business standpoint I am working on some new projects to expand the income possibility for the household, and to plan new activities within the existing multi-sport business.  My completely new venture will be created in the city of Lubbock and will be a complete sports and nutrition expo that will involved all sports related companies in Lubbock.  This has never been done before and initially the enthusiasm for it has been very good.  In the multi-sport business there is a proposal to add three more events to the established agenda.  In my book writing section of my life goals I have three outlines ready and hope to have those books ready for printing by the end of the year.  In all honesty I will confess that I have used the points made by the great author John Maxwell on planning for the new year.  He has sold over 24 million books and specializes in leadership “laws” of the universe and does it well.  Okay, let’s get moving and make 2017 the greatest year ever!

Movie Reviews:

“Why Him?”, **, Possibly this movie deserves a better rating but it didn’t to me.  While it had some potential, it really had too much bad language in it and could have been done much better.  This is a comedy love story and has its’ funny and good points to team up with the bad parts.  It is a Christmas time movie finding the overprotecting father and mother being invited to their daughter’s in California.  The father is played by Bryan Cranston and the daughter by Zoey Deutch.  When they arrive they are met with their unexpected nightmare being the daughter’s boyfriend, played by James Franco.  Even though he is a billionaire he has a free-wheeling attitude and salty language to go with it.  Then when the loving, over protective father learns that the billionaire plans on proposing, the story really gets hot!  Rated R:  Strong language and sexual material.

“Fences”, *****, This is my first five star of the year and is a very good movie, needless to say.  It stars Denzel Washington as a garbage collector in Pittsburgh during the 50’s!  Viola Davis plays his wife, while Mykelti Williamson plays his brother and Stephen Henderson his longtime friend.  This is like a one act play with no intermission, about the lives of  black Americans in Pittsburgh involving family, love, and one man’s misunderstanding, plus denial of age and lost dreams.  Great acting and for sure an award winner when the Oscar’s come around!!  Rated PG-13:  Thematic elements, language and some suggestive elements. 

“Collateral Beauty”,  *****,  This is another five star movie with a great story line and great acting.  Will Smith plays a successful New York advertising executive who suffers a great tragedy and retreats from his life.  While his concerned friends try to connect with him over his loss he makes it impossible to returned the friendship and care.  When he sends 3 letters addressed to Love, Time and Death, he receives unexpected responses and he begins to pull in the dynamics of what is happening around him.  It has a surprising positive ending!  Go see!  Rated PG-13:  Thematic elements and strong language. 

EA, SH.........:)!

greerman